If the Yanukovych regime attempts such a decree, it will divide the police and the army and may quickly cause a bona fide civil war. My hope for a peaceful resolution of this crisis is dwindling. Europe is facing its most serious crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union.

One of the big issues among Ukraine’s opposition has been the nefarious role played by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin in this sad affair. It’s universally assumed by oppositionists that Moscow’s encouragement, at the least, led to the latest round of repression in Kyiv, which has stoked the fires of resistance to their current burning point.

Evidence is generally lacking, since such matters are conducted in secret, but enough has already appeared in the Russian media to indicate Putin is backing Yanukovych’s repression to the hilt. Rumors abound that Russians are involved in the violence in Ukraine, with special operators – what they call SPETSNAZ – from the Russian military or paramilitary police doing dirty work undercover for Yanukovych. Such claims are plausible but yet unsubstantiated.